Aviators will no doubt remember that over a three year period, in his articles “From the Regions” in the Australian Aviation magazine, Mr Terry Wesley-Smith (the CEO of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia) constantly undermined everything I tried to do to increase efficiencies and reduce costs in Australian aviation.
I wonder what Mr Wesley-Smith thinks now? Many of my predictions about pilots losing their jobs unless we copied the most efficient practices from overseas have come to fruition. Already regional aviation companies are closing down, putting pilots out of work. Mining companies are now reducing staff and air services, and I’m told that there will be more bankruptcies of these smaller aviation companies to come.
I do not believe for a second that our problems are over. I predict there will be far worse problems in aviation – not only caused by the world economic recession, but also caused by the almost total lack of understanding by some professional pilots and many people within the bureaucracy, of how unnecessary cost must be removed.
Mr Wesley-Smith had no understanding of this at all. No doubt he is a very competent pilot – I think from a military background. However whenever I discussed with him my fears for aviation in the future if the cost saving reforms were not introduced I could see that he did not agree with me in any way.
Mr Wesley-Smith seemed to support everything the Canberra bureaucracy did. It didn’t matter what idea they came up with – hugely expensive ADS-B that was to lead the world, resistance to change in using the radar properly – they had Wesley-Smith’s 100% support.
In the July 2006 issue of Australian Aviation, in criticising the NAS system Wesley-Smith stated:
Indeed, the US system on which it was based is obsolete and will soon be replaced by a totally new system…
This was outrageously incorrect and obviously written to stop the Government’s NAS policy. I immediately sent to Mr Wesley-Smith the following comment from the former Deputy Director Air Traffic Services of the FAA. He said:
The U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) is not obsolete. There were 63.1 Million operations at U.S. towered airports in 2005. 739 Million passengers flew on commercial aircraft which was an increase of 6.6%.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) is a Research and Development Project that considers communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management modernization of NAS. NAS modernization projects are being considered all over the world by air traffic service providers to ensure harmonized implementation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Operational Concept. ADS-B is a consideration for surveillance. Please see the following website for information provided by FAA at a recent industry day for ADS-B: http://www.adsb.gov/industry_day.htm<about
:blank> . NGATS is not viewed as a replacement, but an evolution to capitalize on new technology to meet future growth demands in global air traffic. You may also want to look at the International Air Transport Association website and see their ATM Implementation Roadmap. It provides a level of detail from the user perspective.
While the U.S. is looking at ways to improve safety and service delivery, I am not aware of any plans that a major airspace restructure is just around the corner. The FAA implemented the U.S. Airspace Classes effective September 16, 1993. This is the current classification of Class A, B, C, D, E and G airspace. Except for minor adjustments, these airspace classes are not affected by NGATS, realignment of Air Route Traffic Control Sectors or any other initiative like the FAA Flight Plan or Operational Evolution Plan.
Despite me sending these facts to Mr Wesley-Smith, he made no corrections in the further articles he wrote in the months to follow.
In April 2007, his article raved about how fantastic the Airspace and Environment Regulatory Unit was. All he ever wrote totally 100% agreed with anything CASA or Airservices claimed – I wondered why at the time.
It had been over two years since the AERU had been set up, however there has not been one measurable change in our airspace – despite the millions of dollars spent on this unit.
Mr Wesley-Smith finished his term as CEO of the Regional Aviation Association last year, and seemed to have disappeared. That is, seems to.
I understand that some six weeks ago, Mr Wesley-Smith was appointed as the new Chairman of ASTRA (Australian Strategic Air Traffic Management Group). Although the website still states that Ian Mallett from CASA is the Chairman, I understand this is incorrect.
With Mr Wesley-Smith as Chairman of ASTRA, I believe we will see this group come totally in line with the cargo cult bureaucrats. I fear there will be more and more recommendations for Australia to lead the world without any understanding of the huge economic cost and the number of jobs that will be lost.
Already ASTRA is pushing and supporting the CASA mandate for Australia to lead the USA by seven years with ADS-B for aircraft that fly above FL290. See
here.
Be prepared for more and more costs, and fewer and fewer jobs as ASTRA makes its recommendations to an industry that is in dire straits.